


Irreplaceable You

by ShadowHaloedAngel



Series: One Night [12]
Category: Carol (2015), The House with a Clock in its Walls (2018)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Flirting, Girls Kissing, Inspired by Music, Jazz - Freeform, Love, Music, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowHaloedAngel/pseuds/ShadowHaloedAngel
Summary: A sun-soaked, jazz-filled moment between two lovers.
Relationships: Carol Aird/Florence Zimmermann
Series: One Night [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1416958
Comments: 8
Kudos: 13





	Irreplaceable You

Sometimes when she was busy with household chores, doing her part to keep the house running, Carol found it helped pass the time to sing. It certainly wasn't something she would have gone so far as to call a talent. She'd never gone so far as to sing in front of other people, not even Abby. She remembered listening to the wireless growing up, being able to hear the big bands drifting up from downstairs and singing along in the privacy of her room, playing with her dolls and trying to imagine the future she would have, when she had someone who looked at her the way the songs said, who made her heart sing the way all those singers seemed to dream about. She'd always had a particular weakness for Bessie Smith and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, and never thought too much about why that might be.

The fact that most of her dreams had revolved around Abby, of the two of them building a life together and always being there for each other, sharing jokes long into adulthood, swapping lipsticks and dresses and perfume should possibly have been a hint that not everything would be so simple. She'd been too young and naive then to really understand what she was dreaming of, or why it wouldn't work. 

As she'd gotten older, she'd found herself singing less and less, and while she was with Harge she hadn't wanted to sing at all. There hadn't been an awful lot of music in those years of her life, even with all the parties and business functions they'd attended.

Since embarking on this new life with Florence, Carol had found that music was starting to creep more and more back into her life. They enjoyed listening to the gramophone and the wireless, and the two of them had taken it in turns to share their favourite songs. Most of all, Carol loved the evenings where they pushed the couch back and danced together in the lamplight. She supposed perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that Florence was such a good dancer, but it had still taken Carol off guard on the first night Florence had taken her hand and twirled her gently onto their makeshift dancefloor. 

With that, music had started to come back into her life again, and she found herself singing more and more under her breath when she was on her own. All of the songs she had loved then seemed to have more meaning now. It was such a cliche to find that they were no longer abstract. With Harge she had just told herself that most people never really experienced those dizzying heights of love. Everyone around them had seemed to support that theory. Most of them had been... comfortable.

She was standing in the kitchen, gazing out into the garden as she did the dishes, with an apron over her dress and washing up gloves to protect her hands. She could have achieved something similar with magic, but both she and Florence appreciated the value of concrete things. Unbidden, a song drifted across her mind, and Carol felt her lips curl up into a smile as she began first to hum it and then to sing to herself, letting the music fill the space around her. 

"There's a saying old, says that love is blind... still we're often told, seek and ye shall find... so I'm going to seek a girl I had in mind..."

She turned off the tap and picked up the first plate, pausing a moment to watch the griffin in Jonathan's backyard and continue singing a song which was starting to feel like it had been written for her in this moment. 

"...Looking everywhere, haven't found her yet, she's the big affair I cannot forget... only girl I ever think of with regret... I'd like to add her initial to my monogram, tell me... where is the shepherd for this lost lamb..."

Her smile grew as she continued, "There's a somebody I'm longing to see, I hope that she turns out to be... someone who'll watch over me..."

She broke off for a deep breath, and found that the next line ached a little behind her ribs as she picked the melody back up again, setting the plate in the drying rack. "I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood, I know I could... always be good... to one who'll watch over me..."

She scrubbed some glasses, humming the plaintive melody until she finally drained the bowl and picked it back up again. 

"Although she may not be the girl some girls think of as handsome, to my heart she carries the key... Won't you tell her please to put on some speed, follow my lead, oh how I need... someone to watch over me..."

She peeled off her gloves and carefully set them aside to dry, turning to find Florence standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame and watching her. 

Carol felt her cheeks flush a little, but she laughed, shaking her head. 

"...I should have known... and just how long have you been standing there?"

Florence smiled. "Not too long, minette, but long enough... can you blame me? I've never been serenaded before..."

"I think for it to count as serenading, it has to be directed at you, doesn't it?" Carol teased, taking a step towards Florence with a toss of her curls. 

That won her a chuckle. "...Probably. But that was beautiful, thank you... I felt far too privileged to wish drawing attention to myself. I didn't know you liked to sing."

"...Well, I don't know that I'm very good at it... and are you seriously trying to tell me that all of those men who were falling all over you back in the cafes of Paris never tried serenading you?"

Florence laughed, pushing away from the doorframe and closing the gap between them even further. Her arms came to rest around Carol's waist, and both women gazed into each other's eyes. 

"...Sadly no, and I doubt I would have given it much truck if they had. They were all far too interested in more direct ways of getting what they wanted. I suspect it's more something that I have come to appreciate with age."

"Well, they do say that with age comes wisdom..." Carol replied, her eyes dancing, and Florence shook her head, still smiling as she pressed a kiss to Carol's lips. 

"You are incorrigible, minette, but it is one of the things I love so very much about you... and I promise that for as long as I live there will always be someone to watch over you..." her lips curled up in a mischievous smile, "My sweet, embraceable, irreplaceable you..."

**Author's Note:**

> https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ellafitzgerald/someonetowatchoverme.html
> 
> Heard this song today and was ambushed by this little plot bunny. I didn't change handsome because it scanned better, and historically has also been used to describe women, so I very much didn't consider it a problem.
> 
> Bonus: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/ellafitzgerald/embraceableyou.html
> 
> When doing a little digging around for this, I discovered that Bessie Smith was apparently also bisexual. Always a nice moment to discover badass queer people you didn't know were queer.
> 
> https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bessie-smith_b_1450477?
> 
> Incidentally I'm pretty sure this would work because another song Ella Fitzgerald sang was AcCenTchuAte the Positive. See below.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYWlPShqj4s
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqtt5wbzggQ


End file.
